Adolescents' exposure to community violence: links with cognitive, affective and temperamental dimensions.

The present dissertation offers a contribution to the comprehension of the psychological and behavioral correlates of being exposed to community violence in a sample of Italian adolescents. The focus on the Italian context is a first important novelty in the research literature on the topic of community violence exposure, which has a long tradition in US, whilst its prevalence and the investigation of its consequences are relatively unexplored in adolescents living in European communities. Specifically, we examined (i) how self-regulatory temperament (i.e., effortful control) is longitudinally linked to community violence exposure and aggressive behavior, and (ii) whether a desensitization mechanism, both cognitive and emotional, can be invoked in the explanation of the relation between community violence and aggressive behavior. Implications and future directions are discussed.